Thursday, May 05, 2005


A note on the Splittist Panda...

Hey there. First off, I have to give credit to William Meldrum for asking the question: what if the two pandas arrive in Taiwan and one of them thinks after awhile that it is Taiwanese and refuses to go back to China?

For those of you who are wondering what the hell I am talking about, China offered two pandas to its "Taiwanese compatriots" as a goodwill gesture during KMT Chairman Lien Chan's trip to China.

But the story doesn't stop there. Xinhua is claiming that the pandas are on their way to Taiwan despite the fact that the ruling DPP government has yet to make up its mind. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two are obviously Trojan pandas and the ministry wants nothing to do with them. KMT Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, would be more than happy to accept the pandas in his city zoo, and according to Xinhua has already started training zoo keepers how to keep and train the pandas.

And according to the Taiwan News: "Council of Agriculture Chairman Lee Ching-lung said Tuesday that his council will act according to the law and professionally assess, without regard for political considerations, whether Taiwan can adequately care for the pandas." even though the government has yet to decide whether it will take the pandas or not. Got it? Good!

Now, we can only hope that whatever the result of the panda issue, the Taiwanese don't give up their freedom and democracy for a pair of bamboo-eating bores.

Here are some panda facts if you need them. Pandas sing about biscuits here.

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